Classic British Flight Sim

Having just got off the Phone to the police to report this scam, I thought I would tell you about it here in the hope that it will prevent any reader from falling into the same trap.

Here is how it happened...I had noticed that my pay as you go phone with Vodafone was using topups rather quickly, especially as I only make a phone call very rarely from Sainsburys to SWMBO to select the correct item on the shelves to purchase.

Anyway I topped up by £20 and was a bit alarmed to get a text from Vodafone a week or two later warning that I was down to £1.10 and a "Prime Text" was waiting to come in...I had noticed a lot of items coming in labelled "88770" but I always ignored them and deleted them. I topped up another £20 and started trying to find a setting to change to stop these things...I unticked various boxes and hoped this would work. A few days later, in came another group of three messages, all "88770" and I noted that my topup had lost about £6.

I now found a setting to reset the Phone to factory settings and persisted through all the warnings to achieve this. Naturally this lost all photos and music and contacts but I was happy to do this to get rid of the stealing menace.

I really thought this would work...But no...In came another three and out went another £6.

This went on till I was again down to minimum and I decided to call Vodafone...It took a lot of waiting through various menus and then waiting without pressing a number, to finally reach a human being. I explained the whole thing to her and asked her to look through my phone records to see what was stealing the money...She eventually found that I was subscribed to a weekly lottery to win an iPad! I could not remember doing anything like this but she said I could stop it by texting "STOP" to 88770. Then she said she could give me the number of the company that ran the lottery...I said I did not really need that, but she was really pushy about giving me the number, so I wrote it down 0845 5280210.

After hanging up my main phone I went to my mobile and texted "STOP" to 88770...I got an immediate text by return to say my subscription was cancelled.

Great! I really thought that I had seen the end of it...But, I thought I would ring the 0845 number to make sure...Well a charming lady answered and she confirmed that my subscription was cancelled and she said that she could fill out a form for requesting refund...Well she was charming with a lovely Swedish accent and she needed my address to send the cheque to, if my request was granted! Well you all are now saying to yourselves "I hope the idiot didn't fall for that crap."...Well I did and not only that but when I got of the phone to her, I went and topped up my mobile with another £20.

Guess what! My mobile phone rang this morning and three more "88770" messages were on the screen and another £6 was gone from my total.

So...I took the sim card out of my phone.... Later on my landline phone I called the 101 police number to report the scam. They were efficient and polite and I explained that I just wanted to let them know about it and that I would be quite happy if they had more important things to do.

The policeman dealing with me was kind enough to do some internet searches and he found the exact scam that I was reporting...He said that it originated at the "RightMove" website where there was a thing to click to enter a weekly lottery for an iPad......................My brain cogs whirled a bit at that and I recollected being on the "RightMove" site recently...I remember clicking that thing...All they wanted was your mobile phone number!!!

Thanks for that Peter.. glad you got to the bottom of it in the end.

I was foolish enough to agree to a telephone survey last week. Judging by the chaps accent.. he was probably operating from some seedy shack in Mumbai. He promised the interview would take only a minute and at 2mins.. I reminded him that he was already a min over his allowance. Just another 3 questions he said and feeling more wound up but reluctant to be rude.. I let him continue. At 7mins.. he still only had 'another two' questions go but I'd had enough by this time. By some strange coincidence.. the phone has gone half a dozen times since from companies dealing with some of the products I use.. obviously related to this bloody phone survey This morning, a young lady from Scottish Power called (for the second time).. Scottish Power were specifically mentioned in the telephone survey. I explained to her that I'd foolishly taken part in a telephone survey and that my phone hadn't stopped ringing since and she apologised and pretty much said that it wasn't Scottish Power who'd called or had been included on this survey. Yeah.. pull the other one However, she WAS polite, she DID apologise and said that she'd take my number off their database.

Moral of the story.. NEVER agree to a telephone survey.

ATB
DaveB

Yeah!...Been there Dave

BTW...I would now like to purchase a mobile phone with BIG numbers, NO camera, NO internet connection, NO texting, NO music and which just lets me ring somebody to talk...No other facilities or gimmicks required. I would also like it to have a setting that would only accept calls from my listed contacts.

I'm guessing that this will be very hard to find, but can anyone recommend a particular model that I can search for?

My wife had a similar problem. Money draining rapidly from her topup, and strange women appearing on her screen. She had inadvertantly signed up to "Dish of The Day" which wasn't as innocent as it appeared. (No, it wasn't me!)

The answer was a £10 a month Vodaphone contract. 300 minutes, and unlimited texts. Also, much cheaper calls from Europe.

Dennis.

petermcleland wrote:BTW...I would now like to purchase a mobile phone with BIG numbers, NO camera, NO internet connection, NO texting, NO music and which just lets me ring somebody to talk...No other facilities or gimmicks required. I would also like it to have a setting that would only accept calls from my listed contacts.

I'm guessing that this will be very hard to find, but can anyone recommend a particular model that I can search for?

No problem, Peter. There are several models on the market aimed at senior users and are big on buttons and sounds and low on internettery. Which? Magazine has tested some and here are their four 'Best Buys'. You'll have to google for the best prices etc. Not sure about call filters but you can check the specs.

1. Amplicomms PowerTel M7000, 83% £75
2. Doro PhoneEasy 612, 83% £60
3. Doro PhoneEasy 610, 72% £70
4. Doro PhoneEasy 515, 70% £85

Well done for persevering in tracing that scam. They must be making millions from people who are lazy or stupid - or lazy and stupid!

Ian

DaveB wrote:Moral of the story.. NEVER agree to a telephone survey.

ATB
DaveB

When I get those survey calls, I always tell them my time is valuable and I charge $50 minimum and $10 per question ....payable in advance! They usually hang up.

Nigel²

Well I got a really cheap basic phone...A Tesco PAYG Nokia 100...It was £9 and delivery was free...It arrived today and I've been putting in my contacts. It has no camera or anything like that but it has a flashlight in one end and it has an FM radio if you plug in the headset as a aerial. It is slim and small and has good sized numbers...I love it already and NO! you can't have my number

Glad you're happy with it Peter
ATB
DaveB